A two-year legal battle between former
members of the Dead Kennedys has ended with the band regaining control
of their back catalogue, after it emerged Jello Biafra had been "engaging
in fraudulent conduct" against his former colleagues. The case started
in 1997, when an employee of Biafra?s Alternative Tentacles label
(which holds the Kennedys back catalogue) found that the band had been
underpaid $76,000 in royalties which had accrued over a ten-year period.
Biafra didn?t let his former bandmates know about the hoard, instead
using the band?s own royalties as a bargaining ploy to get the others
to sign over their rights to Alternative Tentacles in perpetuity. When
it was revealed that the band were actually legally entitled to these
royalties, Biafra told his former bandmates that they would need a court
order to get compensation. The band duly filed suit against Biafra in
October 1998.

In May last year, a jury found Alternative
Tentacles guilty of engaging in "fraudulent conduct" and that
"Biafra had breached his contractual and fiduciary obligations".
The court also found Biafra and his company "guilty of malice, oppression
and fraud", claiming that the term malice meant "conduct which
is so vile, base, contemptible, miserable, wretched or loathsome that
it would be looked down upon and despised by ordinary, decent people."
Which is kind of fitting for the authors of Too Drunk To Fuck?

Biafra was also found guilty of using
profits from sales of the band?s back catalogue to promote his solo
career. "The jury found that Biafra purposefully defrauded us, his
band mates and partners," said bassist Klaus Flouride. "This
was about equality, fairness and the democracy of the band. We did the
Dead Kennedys together, it was a collaboration and each of us has a voice
in our future. Now the money he was taking as the label will be shared
with all the band members."

With the Kennedys continuing as a
partnership, guitarist East Bay Ray says that Biafra will be invited to
vote on all issues regarding the band. Now that the other members are
in control of the catalogue, it?s likely that there will be reissues
and new archive releases. "There?s a whole generation of kids
who are into the band, but never saw us live," said drummer D. H.
Peligro. "It?s about laying it down for the people."